THE LONESOME DEATH OF ANDREW KERNAN
Andrew Kernan was known by many in Wavertree the area he lived in South Liverpool as ‘The Gentle Giant’. At his funeral he was described by Father Peter Morgan as a sensitive man who loved to garden, ‘who loved growing things, who loved bright colours, who loved the birds’. He was shot dead because he had mental health problems and because Merseyside Police alleged he was a threat to the public. After a 15 month ‘independent’ investigation by Greater Manchester police force, then a six month review of the evidence by the Crown Prosecution Service it was decided that the Merseyside police officers responsible for shooting Andrew had no case to answer. Maria Kernan Andrew’s mother, believed that from start to finish the whole investigation was a shambles.
Andrew Kernan had worked as a Gardener for Liverpool City Council, until in his early twenties he began to develop mental health problems he was diagnosed with suffering from Schizophrenia. For the following sixteen years his mother became Andrews full time carer.
Andrew lived in a two bedroom flat with his mother Marie. On the evening of 12th July 2001, Andrew got into his pyjamas after a bath and settled down to watch some TV. Like most people suffering from schizophrenia Andrew would have occasional lapses, where he would become scared and agitated but his mother with 16 years experience knew exactly what to do – she would encourage him to sit in his bedroom and then call the Mental Health Crises team at Broadgreen hospital who would administer treatment. But on 12th July 2001 this was not the treatment Andrew received.
Marie recognising the signs of anguish, managed to keep her broad shouldered, 6ft plus, 37-year-old son, in his bedroom by holding the door handle, reassuring him that everything was all right and that help would soon arrive. However, it took the crises team more than an hour to arrive.
According to Mrs Kernan, without seeing Andrew, the two mental health workers phoned the police and sat outside the house on a wall. When the police arrived armed and in full body gear Mrs Kernan (who had managed to calm her son) was ordered out of the house and into the back of a police car. Mrs Kernan would never see her son alive again. When ‘negotiations’ failed the police said they then attempted to ‘subdue’ Andrew with Tear Gas. Despite the presence of forty-four police officers and two mental health workers, Andrew escaped out of the house and onto the street carrying the ornamental Samarian sword that had been on display on his bedroom wall. Mrs Kernan heard Andrew crying out ‘mum’ mum’ and attempted to get out of the Police car but found she’d been locked in, she heard two loud bangs. The next time she saw Andrew he was lying on a cold slab in the mortuary. Andrew had been shot twice in the chest by a police marksman, and later died in Hospital.
It has now been over two years since Andrew was shot dead. The Mersey Care NHS Trust in their ‘investigation’ into the role of the Mental Health Crises Team concluded that the two members of the crises team did ‘what would have been expected’ and did not contribute to Andrew’s death. They drew these conclusions despite the fact that the NHS investigators did not speak to a single police officer that was at the scene, or to Andrew’s sister Veronica again, whom the mental health workers claimed, had previously told them in a telephone conversation, that Andrew had ‘machetes in his bedroom’. Veronica a serving police officer in the south of England has denied this claim.
At the request of the Police Complaints Authority, Greater Manchester Police began to investigate the role Merseyside police officers played at the scene of Andrew’s killing. The completed dossier was then passed on to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in October 2002 (15 months later) for them to decide whether any of the police officers should be charged. On the 7th May 2003 after 6 months of ‘Contemplating’ the CPS released their recommendations, informing Rex Makin (Mrs Kernan solicitor) by fax – that the police officer that shot Andrew or anyone of the 44 police officers present when Andrew was shot dead would not be charged.
It is not surprising that Mrs Kernan described the CPS decision, the police investigation and the health service report as a ‘total whitewash’. How was it that a man known to everyone in the area he lived as the gentle giant, who had never hurt a soul, a man who had never had as much as a police caution, suffering mental distress could be treated like an armed and dangerous criminal and shot dead outside his home as Mrs Kernan said ‘like an animal’? How can it be when 44 police officers were at the scene could they not have helped a distressed man with a history of mental illness, instead of shooting him dead? How come when Mrs Kernan a small slight 5ft nothing woman, could keep her son in his bedroom, that the burly six police officers inside the house could not?
Mrs Kernan after finding out the police officers would not be facing charges said, "I think it is absolutely disgusting they can get away with this, but I knew from the beginning that this was how it would go." Andrew was a man who needed help; instead he got two bullets to the chest. Right at the very beginning of the case, it would seem, the cover ups and excuses began, even from the initial claim that Andrew was a danger to the public – not one member of the public came out and made that claim. Proper answers have not been given to why the mental health team called for the police? Why the police arrived armed, why six police officers allowed Andrew out of the house, why Andrew was, if he needed to be shot, was not shot in the legs or arms instead of the chest. Mrs Kernan whose only crime was to ask for help, who has only wanted genuine answers as to why her beloved son was shot dead, has herself been treated like a criminal. The mental health support team failed her, and then covered up, the police killed her son, and have not given any decent reason as to why, and the authorities have covered up - all have seriously failed her. Mrs Kernan joins the many hundreds of families throughout the country who have had loved ones killed by the police whether on the streets or in custody - families who will continue to look for answers, to ask questions and to fight against a police force that knows at the moment it can kill ordinary people and offer only feeble answers knowing there is a system that will cover up for them and make sure they face no consequences.